Below is an excerpt of a letter written last week by Dr. Gothard. The entire letter including translations may be found here; Gun Violence and School Safety.

Our young people are hurting. Long-term mental health, emotional and behavioral problems have worsened since the pandemic. Our mental health teams know this better than anyone, and I can’t thank them enough for their tireless work. If you have a child in crisis, please reach out to your school or call the Children’s Mental Health Crisis Line at 651-266-7878.

What is the solution to all of this? If there were an easy answer, I wouldn’t be writing this letter. Here are a few things that SPPS is doing to address both safety and mental health:

• $7 million investment in community partnerships to provide mental health services and social emotional learning support for students
• $1 million grant from the Department of Justice to increase school safety using preventative, evidence-based solutions
• Increased numbers of school counselors, psychologists and social workers in our schools
• Ongoing training of security staff to anticipate, respond to and resolve crisis situations
• Direct line to Saint Paul Police Department and Ramsey County crisis team

The activation of Hold in Place, LockOUT and LockDOWN are safety procedures that are called in different times to ensure that our students and staff are safe and secure during these events.

Below are the different types of situations and what warrants each call.

Hold in Place- To stop movement INSIDE the building, clear the hallways so that staff can get to the location of an incident whether it's a fight, medical need of staff/student or to investigate if further action is needed.

LOCKDOWN- TO isolate staff and students in secure locations against harm INSIDE the building. The threat to any staff or student or where there is a risk for danger inside our school would constitute the lockdown procedure.

LOCKOUT- To isolate staff and students from any harm or danger that may exist OUTSIDE of the building. This does not necessarily have to even involve our school, it may be nearby police activity, or anything going on that we are alerted to that could possibly risk harm to our school. We hear your concerns and want to help answer questions where we can. We may not have all the answers but we will listen and work to come up with answers and plans to keep our school and community safe.

Starting January 24, 6:30-7:00pm, Dr. Butler will be available via Zoom for questions and concerns. She will schedule other Zoom meets as well to have open conversation with families. Administration will also be available to meet with families next week, Monday, January 30 at our Parent Teacher Organization meeting(6-7pm). Please, join us. We want to hear from parents and students and we invite conversations about how we can all work together to make Humboldt a safe, fun and healthy learning experience for all of our students.

Join Zoom Meeting January 24: https://zoom.us/j/2093236685?

Semester 2 starts on January 30th.

Students should review their schedule now and connect with their counselors with any questions or concerns.

If students have an elective class they would like to change, they may do so by using the following online form: https://bit.ly/3bFTr4M.

We request that all requests be submitted before the start of the new semester.

Do you speak and write in more than one language?

It is time for you to be recognized! Students may earn a Minnesota Bilingual Seal or Certificate and earn up to 20 FREE semester college credits per language with a qualifying score!

What? The Bilingual Seals assessment is a language proficiency test. The test includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

Assessments are available in the following languages:

ASL • Amharic • Arabic • Bulgarian • Czech • Dakota • French • German Hebrew • Hindi • Hmong • Hungarian • Italian • Japanese • Karen • Korean Lakota • Latin • Mandarin • Oromo • Ojibwe • Portuguese • Russian•Somali • Spanish • Tamil • Thai • Vietnamese

Where? At Humboldt

When? March 14 - 16

REGISTER today!

(https://forms.gle/rcTNccZtDvTZmmFQ8)

Registration ends January 31st, 2023.

ACCESS Testing and Your Student(s)

Each year students in our English Learner Program take the ACCESS for ELLs language proficiency test. The test measures academic English language proficiency for students learning English in our school and throughout our state.

Teachers in our school use this information to help them make decisions about instruction for your student(s). Teachers also use these test scores to monitor the progress your child makes toward English proficiency.

This test has four parts, and is scheduled to be given at our school in February and March of 2023. Please contact me if you have questions about the ACCESS for ELLs test.

tracy.zanitsch@spps.org

Humboldt Student Council is excited to be hosting SNODAZE, February 6-10, with the week culminating with a Student vs. Staff Basketball game, performance by our Humboldt PomSquad as well as Senior High Dance. Both the basketball game and the dance will be Friday, February 10 and student sign-up and ticket purchase will begin January 30.

Basketball-This will be during school, our last hour of the day. All grades are welcome to sign-up but depending on how many students register, we may have to limit the amount and have a lotto selection for who will represent their grade. Encourage your student to sign-up and participate to play or they may cheer on their peers.

Senior High Dance(9-12)- There's SNOW Place Like Humboldt will be held in our auxiliary gym from 7:30-10pm. Tickets will be sold from January 30-February 10 during lunches. All ticket sales will be in advance of the dance, NO TICKETS SOLD AT THE DOOR. The cost of admission is $10 and includes pizza. Other snacks and drinks will be available for purchase to benefit the senior class.

Dress-Up Days are listed in the slides above! Students may participate by wearing something for each day's theme.

PTO Meeting- January 30, 6-7pm at Humboldt

SNODAZE- February 6-10,

SNODAZE -February 10, 7:30-10 Dance grades 9-12

Picture Retake- February 9, details and sign-up to follow.

NAAPID- February 13(More details to follow) National African American Parent Involvement Day